Doctor Who: Series 3

Now we're reaching the prime time for Doctor Who.

I vastly enjoyed series 3 more than both series 1 and 2, I'm not sure if this series is better than the last but it all comes down to people's opinions in the end. Yet even I was enjoying myself much more, probably because it felt like an established season, yes we still get a new companion but this was really when both the showrunners and David started making it their own. Of course that's not to say the last two series were bad or a product of poor craftsmanship, they did a great job reintroducing the show with Chris and then built more on it with David's first series, but this is when it really hit it's stride for me! There's only one episode you could skip, the rest are all great and some of which still have an impact on the show to this day so clearly they were doing their best to make this series the greatest yet and it shows. After the shocking ending to the finale we pick up with The Runaway Bride which is a lot of fun for a Christmas episode before we head into the series proper with Smith & Jones. Now before, I gave Martha not a lot of credit but all because of one thing, she gets all doe eyed at the Doctor and crushes on him hard, I remember days where companions were just travelling friends and had great respect for The Doctor but didn't exactly want a relationship. I know it's a product of these times but it feels so....CW. That's not a good thing (but I still love you Supernatural) but beyond that I dig her as a companion, especially how she pretty much singlehandedly made the good guys win in the series finale but she's fun, intelligent, and a wonderful emotional and morale compass for the series. I have to admit though it really took them over 40 years to have a companion who wasn't white as snow? And no I don't count Mickey as a companion, he had two onscreen adventures before going off. We had flippin' robots as companions before we got other races onboard the Tardis, and no I haven't gotten my hands on any Big Finish audio dramas so don't bring those up, but yeah that's a bit weird but change is always welcome, especially in this show. After that it's just about hit after hit of episodes! Shakespeare Code is awesome, I genuinely love Gridlock, the Daleks In Manhattan is a bit hokey but okay. It was great seeing Mark Gatiss get a part in an episode, and an interesting one at that. The Family Of Blood is an even more fascinating episode with tons to love and appreciate, least of all David's acting skills. Blink is a modern horror master stroke that could be a movie on it's own today and still genuinely and completely unnerves me. I mean Jesus, don't watch it at night, especially before bed. I learned that the hard way. And the so far unrivaled 3 part finale is pretty spectacular in terms of scale, story, and character. I won't say much more but man is it more awesome if you've seen older Doctor Who episodes from the 70s and 80s! The only one you can wholeheartedly skip is 42, it's not bad but it does seem very filler but beyond that, great series! It's a shame we only really have one more series with David though, it's a funny buisness time....you're gone for ages, you've already gone, you're still here, you've just arrived, I haven't even met you yet. It really does put it into perspective sometimes at how much time you get to see a person before they leave. But if memory does serve correctly, his last one went out with a bang.

Time to move on. To see familiar faces, enemies new and old, history in the making, and an unfamiliar face soon to be known.

Sherlock: Series 4

Late? Yes. Busy? Very. Any good? More than you would expect.

God, how do I talk about it? So many secrets and twists. Well...it didn't surpass series 3. Still very good, was very surprised and entertained but didn't wow me. But then again it took a second viewing of the last series to call it my favorite, so who knows? Has quite possibly, the best acting in the entire run of the show but in places. It gets very weird, even reality questioning at times, but the humor, intrigue, and cases still hold hard and true. It's quite interesting when you get down to it. I almost dare not reveal more. In a way, it delves into the very psychology of Sherlock, what made him who he is today. The only last thing I can truly say is, the final episode has reached new heights of danger for Sherlock and John than ever before, The Great Game, The Reichenbach Fall, His Last Vow, nothing compared to this. Nothing. It is bad.

Sherlock: Series 3

Okay, really surprising. It's my favorite series.

I thought it was impossible to surpass series 2. I was wrong. Which is odd, because the first time I watched it I thought it was just okay, nothing special or greater than the last series. But now that I have watched it for a second time, I can safely say it is my favorite, every episode is terrific, it focuses so much more on the relationship Sherlock and John have together, how Sherlock handles John being married to Mary, and it works so brilliantly well. The first episode really was all about Sherlock coming back, there wasn't even a case until well after the halfway point. The Sign Of Three is in my opinion, the absolute best episode of the entire show hands down, again really not much of a case but it is the most humorous, most emotional, and most perfectly well done episode, if there was an episode I could watch whenever I wanted this would be it. And finally, His Last Vow which gets really trippy and metaphysical but the twists, and the overall menace of our antagonist makes it damn good and it ended the way I wanted it to so very difficult to argue with the quality of this whole series. It has the best sum of episodes, it has my absolute favorite episode, touches on everything that I know and love about the show, introduces new characters, and by the by, Mary is....extraodinary. I simply adore her, if I ever knew her in real life the question "What am I going to do with you?" would spring up, and to be perfectly honest that is the highest compliment and viewing standard I could ever have for another person. Truly John is a lucky man. So anyway, the best series in my opinion. Not unless series 4 floors me beyond any form of comprehension....

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

Well that was certainly a trip. Quite brilliant fun but good lord do I feel bizzare now.

The Abominable Bride is the Sherlock Christmas special set in 1895, a true Sherlock in it's most basic form but not quite. It's Christmas in London and Holmes and Dr. Watson acquire a case of a suicidal bride returning from the dead and murdering her husband, the pair take up the case and I have to say it is a rather fun and very intelligent mystery, with the usual stamp of quality you would see in any other episode. I have to absolutely say to view this after watching series 3 as it contains MASSIVE spoilers of series 2 and 3, as it sets up the beginning of series 4 as well. So needless to say, there's a bit more to it than just a special one off episode set in the time period Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his stories. I am assured you can figure it out on your own, I take nothing but the best. But I had a blast with the whole experience of it all. Actually that sums this episode up perfectly, an experience. I'm very excited to go over series 3 tomorrow, I do hope you will join me. Come at once if convenient, if inconvenient come anyway.

Sherlock: Series 2

In some circumstances, this series surpasses the first and others...well, don't.

Now I love this series of Sherlock, quite possibly more than the first even though it has one of the most uneventful and dull episodes I have ever witnessed in my life AND is so far the worst episode of the whole show that I have seen so far, but even then it's not horrible. It has one of the best written, edited, and acted scenes in the entire show's run, and this episode is The Hound Of The Baskerville. You know what's really weird? Almost every example of Sherlock Holmes that I have seen in over 15 years has strangely been "The Hound Of The Baskerville", not any other story written by Doyle has ever been brought to my attention. Not "A Study In Pink", not "The Reichenbach Fall", not even "The Final Problem". Always "The Hound". How peculiar is that? But whatever disappointment that story gives me, is immediately rectified with The Reichenbach Fall. It surpasses tenfold whatever stakes were in previous episodes, it's still the best in my opinion. Also really strange how my favorite, and in my humble opinion, best episodes have Andrew Scott in them, he just entertains me so. Now every aspect of the previous series has improved, and it does the correct thing with building upon previous stories and still giving us plenty of fresh and new things we have not seen before. The acting, stories, editing, mysteries, and action have really stood high for me. True the first series was great, but just because of the final episode this is my favorite series of the show so far. Will series 3 surpass it, or will it just be another really good string of episodes? Well, I might be cheating a bit but since my school schedule is so jam packed tomorrow and there is no ample time to review a whole nother series, I will be looking at the Christmas special that premiered last year for the review of that day which air date wise came out after the end of series 3. So stay on the look out for that, and tell me if you figured out the solution to the final problem before Thursday. See you then.

Sherlock: Series 1

The game is on.

For those of you who have not watched the BBC series Sherlock, I....it's pure pity I feel for you. This show is amazing! You know the basic iconography of Sherlock Holmes, absurdly brilliant detective solves crimes the police cannot with his friend and colleague Dr. John Watson. Now take that concept out of Victorian England and put it into 21st century London. It works better than one might expect. Although I'm pretty sure every single episode, which is an hour and a half long by the way, goes exactly like the short stories Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. I watched all the series up to one point and then picked up one of the compilation Sherlock Holmes books which is the only way you can read them nowadays, and scene for scene, sometimes even line for line, follows the stories. And the casting could not ever, ever, ever be done any other way besides Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, and Martin Freeman as John Watson. They play it beyond perfection. I mean if you think about these characters, in modern day, they act perfectly how they would really behave in this day and age. I love it! The whole show harbors on these two actors, although supporting cast can never be excluded, they are quite lovely too especially Mrs. Hudson and Molly, they never cease to make me smile. But...I would almost argue Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty steals the whole first series and do you know how long he is on screen for? Maybe 5 minutes. In four and a half hours of total run time for the entire first series, it takes him 5 minutes to pull the rug out from under your feet and utterly wow you. He terrifies me and yet makes me giggle like a girl at the same time. Somehow. But anyway! I never once heard of this show until maybe either my second or third year of high school, it was recommended to me by a friend who said I reminded him too much of Sherlock, I eventually watched the series (At that point series 1 and 2 were on Netflix) and was really took by it. And I do hate it takes over a year for every new series to come out. I am so not even kidding you now. It really does take a year and a half for one series to come out. But fear not, just recently they released the fourth series on home video and I will cover each series this week. So stay tuned, enjoy, and I will see you tomorrow.